E-mail this article

To:

Invalid E-mail address

Add a personal message:(80
character limit)Your E-mail:

Invalid E-mail address

Sending your article

Courtesy of Open Table.

Open Table President Peter Hilton, right, accepts a check for $1,500 from Michael Kuza, senior community relations representative of Middlesex Savings Bank, in the hall of First Parish Church in Concord.

By Laura E. Franzini, Globe Correspondent

The all-volunteer organization that provides weekly community supper programs and food pantries in Concord and Maynard has received a $1,500 Community Grant from the Massachusetts Bankers' Association Charitable Foundation.

Open Table was nominated for the grant by Middlesex Savings Bank, a long-time philanthropic partner of Open Table through its own charitable foundation and its community giving program, and Senior Community Relations Representative Michael Kuza presented Peter Hilton, president of Open Table, with the check, according to a press release.

"These funds are most welcome and needed, especially during the holiday season," Hilton said in the press release. "We serve between 100 and 120 people at our community meals each week at both our Maynard and Concord locations, and another 300 families receive food from our pantries every week as well," he said.

Meals and pantries take place every Thursday at First Parish Church in Concord and every Monday at Clock Tower Place cafeteria in Maynard.

Open Table serves 15,000 dinner guests and 25,000 recipients of pantry groceries annually. The agency receives approximately 150,000 pounds of donated food and purchases about 100,000 additional pounds every year. Guests come from many surrounding towns and from as far away as Boston, the press release said.

The $1,500 from Massachusetts Bankers' Association was one of 33 community grants, totaling $131,500, that were announced Dec. 10. Recipients were nominated by the association's approximately 180 member banks.